tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8785065039608350318.post2347504476075363686..comments2011-04-27T09:37:58.365-07:00Comments on Literature and the Contemporary: Revision on Borges PromptAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8785065039608350318.post-13449052579777050632011-04-10T08:36:33.681-07:002011-04-10T08:36:33.681-07:00So what does it all mean?
You&#39;ve paid a lot o...So what does it all mean?<br /><br />You&#39;ve paid a lot of attention to a lot of details. Some I knew about; some I&#39;d never picked up on before, but I do think you are correct in your readings, at least for the most part. But what work do those readings do? Or to put it another way, why should we care?<br /><br />Look at the following excerpt from your essay:<br /><br />*******************<br />Quain, writing of the creation of simulacrum as a potential path to happiness and Borges writing of simulacrum as the sorcerer’s exact path of happiness show uncanny likeness toward each other and even more of a reason to find these two stories to be a part of each other.<br /><br />Fourthly, Borges explains that “One of the stories hints at two plots; the reader, blinded by vanity, believes that he himself has come up with them” (111). I think that the reader can be interchanged here to be the sorcerer. <br /><br />**************<br /><br />So Quain = Borges, and sorceror = reader. This fits in well with your closing analysis concerning the number eight (one thing I need to add there is that the number eight is rarely a number we go looking for; western culture, with its biblical roots, tends to make heavy use of 7, 3, and 40; it&#39;s interesting that Borges uses 8.<br /><br />I&#39;m reasonably convinced. At the very least, I&#39;m *willing* to buy into your reading. But what does it do for me? If I&#39;m the sorceror, is Borges teaching me about the ignorance in which I go all through my life? Am I being uplifted for the power of my imagination? Mocked for my delusions? I&#39;m not saying your reading would be as simple as any of this. What I&#39;m saying is that, despite the merit of your individual arguments, this is hard to read and follow because you don&#39;t really have a clear central argument, and hence I&#39;m unsure of the significance of the number eight within the whole (for instance).<br /><br />I like the details - sometimes a lot - but the whole is short on unity and direction. Why do I care that Borges=Quain and I=sorceror? If you can answer that, in a coherent and focused way, then this would be outstanding.<br /><br />Doing some research probably would have helped you focus this, and either would have strengthened your reading or given you some other possibilities (possibly to put in tension with your own ideas).Adamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.com